Pizzeria (an off-topic chat room)

[Laurel]

Beneath a shady tree, the hero spread
His table on the turf, with cakes of bread;
And, with his chiefs, on forest fruits he fed.
They sate; and, (not without the god's command,)
Their homely fare dispatch'd, the hungry band
Invade their trenchers next, and soon devour,
To mend the scanty meal, their cakes of flour.
Ascanius this observ'd, and smiling said:
"See, we devour the plates on which we fed."

                                         --Aeneid, bk. 7

Here's a shady place to sit and talk about anything but the book at hand. Enjoy!

[Laurel]

Happy New Year, everyone! 2009 is a great year to read Virgil and Dante.

I woke up this morning to. . . SNOW. And I thought we had just gotten rid of it. It's very beautiful.

[Timbuktu2]

Happy New Year to you Laurel.  It's a nice white New Year for you.  Fresh and clean, right?

After the Aeneid my class will be reading the Inferno.  I'll have to check your schedule, but is that what we'll be reading here too?  That would be a great coincidence for me.  Is there some connection between the two works, other than that they're both "Italian"? 

[Laurel]

All is clean and new again.

The Inferno is the first book in The Divine Comedy. We'll be reading it during March and April and then go on to the other two books, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Virgil was Dante's guide through the first part of his journey and the poet most admired by Dante. We'll see many echoes of Virgil in Dante. Great trip!

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Timbuktu2 wrote:

Happy New Year to you Laurel.  It's a nice white New Year for you.  Fresh and clean, right?

After the Aeneid my class will be reading the Inferno.  I'll have to check your schedule, but is that what we'll be reading here too?  That would be a great coincidence for me.  Is there some connection between the two works, other than that they're both "Italian"? 

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[Laurel]

I just spent a good part of New Year's Day figuring out what I read last year, so here you go:

Books Read in 2008

Framley Parsonage 

The Small House at Allington

The Last Chronicle of Barset 

Henry V

Love's Labour's Lost 
Henry VIII  The Taming of the Shrew 
Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library Series)  Julius Caesar (Barnes & Noble Shakespeare) 

Middlemarch (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) 

Northanger Abbey 
Persuasion (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)  Agnes Grey 

Rebecca  Secret Garden 

Idylls of the King 

Odyssey (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) 

Anna Karenina (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)  War and Peace

Ward No. 6 and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) 

In the Ravine and Other Short Stories The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov 

The Overcoat (Dodo Press) 

Snow Angels
The Book Thief

Pillars of the Earth

The Man Who Was Thursday The Man Who was Thursday  
Orthodoxy 

Paradise Lost (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) 

Aeneid (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) 

Mayor of Casterbridge (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)  Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Cranford 
North and South  Wives and Daughters 

Parnassus on Wheels (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) 

Innocent Traitor

Pere Goriot (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) 

Housekeeping 
Gilead  Home

The Brain That Changes Itself

Year of Living Biblically

Child's Christmas in Wales

Called Out of Darkness 

The Secret Life of Walter Kitty 

Books from the above list that I would not read again

Snow Angels  --well written, just not my type of book.

The Book Thief 

--I enjoyed this and learned from it, but once is enough.
The Pillars of the Earth 

--This is just a bodice-ripper disguised as an historical novel. What a disappointment!

Innocent Traitor  --Ditto, but not nearly as bad.

Message Edited by Laurel on 01-01-2009 02:45 PM

Message Edited by Laurel on 01-01-2009 04:04 PM

Message Edited by Laurel on 01-01-2009 04:06 PM

[Timbuktu2]

Very impressive!

My list, from what I can remember!

Odyssey

Iliad

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Republic

Norton's anthology of Poetry (selections)

The Histories by Herodotus

Don Quixote

On the Nature of Things by Lucretius

Origin of the Species by Darwin

 Physics by Aristotle

Antony and Cleopatra

The Tempest

Go Down Moses by Faulkner

Collected Stories by Faulkner

My Life in France by Julia Child

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Paula Deen's memoirs

That's all I can remember off hand.  No wonder I'm tired! 

[Timbuktu2]

How could I forget "My Early Life" by Churchill?  A great book!

BTW, I don't regret having read any of them.  I'd recommend them all. 

[Timbuktu2]

Forgot The Bacchae by Euripedes

Treatise on Law by Aquinas

Grounding for the Metaphyisics of Moral by Kant 

[Laurel]

I would say your list is very impressive, Timbu. Some of those I don't think I'll ever attempt.

[Timbuktu2]

The impressive part is due to the great books program I'm in.  My inclination would be to read nothing but Paula Deen type memoirs without some outside support.

Just wondering, which would you find difficult?  Aquinas was no picnic. 

[Laurel]

Aquinas is the very one I was most thinking about. I've read Plato's Republic, but it was with a philosopher who went over it pretty much line by line with us. I've been avoiding Joyce, though I did start Ulysses when we were reading The Odyssey. I can't bear to think of reading Kant, though he's probably better than Hegel. And I do need to try Cervantes again--soon.

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Timbuktu2 wrote:

The impressive part is due to the great books program I'm in.  My inclination would be to read nothing but Paula Deen type memoirs without some outside support.

Just wondering, which would you find difficult?  Aquinas was no picnic. 

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[Timbuktu2]

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Laurel wrote:
Aquinas is the very one I was most thinking about. I've read Plato's Republic, but it was with a philosopher who went over it pretty much line by line with us. I've been avoiding Joyce, though I did start Ulysses when we were reading The Odyssey. I can't bear to think of reading Kant, though he's probably better than Hegel. And I do need to try Cervantes again--soon.

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Timbuktu2 wrote:

The impressive part is due to the great books program I'm in.  My inclination would be to read nothing but Paula Deen type memoirs without some outside support.

Just wondering, which would you find difficult?  Aquinas was no picnic. 

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Aquinas was no fun at all.  There are several Jesuit trained men in my class and I thought they might have an easier time with it but no.  One said that "Aquinas is better than Ambien.  It puts you to sleep and it isn't habit forming."  

 

A good prof is important.  I loved Kant but I did have a great prof.  If you get the Republic you'll get Portrait of the Artist.  It's the story of a boy going up Plato's divided line.  I found it difficult but exhilerating.  I really related, mostly because I'm a human being but also because my husband is an artist.  I just finished Don Quixote.  Amazing.  So many layers.  I've never read Hegel.

 

Went to a lecture on Euripedes today.  Fascinating.  The prof compared the Libation Bearers to  Sophocles Electra and Euripedes Electra.  Now I'm ready to tackle the Orestia!

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[Everyman]

Nice lists, T and L.  I couldn't begin to put together a list of my 2008 readings. I've read most of the book the two of you list at one time or another, with a few exceptions on Laurel's list (I agree about Pillars of the Earth, haven't read Gilead,  A Year of Living Biblically, The Overcoat, Housekeeping (it's on my TBR shelf), Called out of Darkness, or the Secret Life of Kitty, which should be Walter Kitty).   From T's list, have never read her last five, but have all the rest.

Good reading lists both of you!

P.S.  I actually enjoyed the portions of Aquinas that were read in the St. John's program.   Such a wonderfully disciplined and logical writer! After having read in my HS years some other theologians, including Barth, Tillich, Bultmann, Kierkegaard, and Cox, all of whom I considered wishy-washy, it was a pleasure come across a theologian who had a logical and straightforward approach to theology, whether or not I agreed with him.  

Message Edited by Everyman on 01-02-2009 11:55 PM

[Peppermill]

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Everyman wrote:

Nice lists, T and L.  I couldn't begin to put together a list of my 2008 readings. I've read most of the book the two of you list at one time or another, with a few exceptions on Laurel's list (I agree about Pillars of the Earth, haven't read Gilead,  A Year of Living Biblically, The Overcoat, Housekeeping (it's on my TBR shelf), Called out of Darkness, or the Secret Life of Kitty, which should be Walter Kitty).   From T's list, have never read her last five, but have all the rest.

Good reading lists both of you!

P.S.  I actually enjoyed the portions of Aquinas that were read in the St. John's program.   Such a wonderfully disciplined and logical writer! After having read in my HS years some other theologians, including Barth, Tillich, Bultmann, Kierkegaard, and Cox, all of whom I considered wishy-washy, it was a pleasure come across a theologian who had a logical and straightforward approach to theology, whether or not I agreed with him.  

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Eman -- Do hope you get to War and Peace from Laurel's list!  It is a monster and certainly not disciplined and logical in the sense of Aquinas.  But so full of life and circumstance!

My list would be far different from any of you.  Besides what I have read alongside the B&N boards, with my monthly face-to-face group, and with another group that focuses on spiritual and Biblical topics, I think DeLillo's Underworld  and Murakami's Kafka on the Shore have been the fictional mind stretchers for me in 2008, although there have been other pleasure points, not all of them finished, such as Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence (probably not of the caliber of Midnight's Children, but reminiscent of Calvino, whose works I so enjoy).  I just finished reading/listening to Dickens' Oliver Twist, which, as good as the writing is, reminded me once again of some of the many reasons I am not a fan of Charles Dickens.  Still, it was good preparation for the upcoming Masterpiece series.  Likewise, Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

But I also find considerable pleasure in non-fictional reading and in commentaries, as well as in articles, both in magazines and on the Internet.  I find the pace and the books not sustainable on the current affairs column here on B&N, but there is a local group that focuses on such topics that I may explore in 2009 -- I'm just not ready to make another time commitment.

[Timbuktu2]

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Everyman wrote:

Nice lists, T and L.  I couldn't begin to put together a list of my 2008 readings. I've read most of the book the two of you list at one time or another, with a few exceptions on Laurel's list (I agree about Pillars of the Earth, haven't read Gilead,  A Year of Living Biblically, The Overcoat, Housekeeping (it's on my TBR shelf), Called out of Darkness, or the Secret Life of Kitty, which should be Walter Kitty).   From T's list, have never read her last five, but have all the rest.

Good reading lists both of you!

P.S.  I actually enjoyed the portions of Aquinas that were read in the St. John's program.   Such a wonderfully disciplined and logical writer! After having read in my HS years some other theologians, including Barth, Tillich, Bultmann, Kierkegaard, and Cox, all of whom I considered wishy-washy, it was a pleasure come across a theologian who had a logical and straightforward approach to theology, whether or not I agreed with him.  

Message Edited by Everyman on 01-02-2009 11:55 PM

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About Aquinas.  I have to confess that during the month we spent on him I had a terrible health scare.  It made me realize (and consider young children from difficult situations) that it's impossible to think when there are other things pressing on your mind.  I remember reading the same lines over and over and over and none of it getting through.  I couldn't even hear the discussions in class.  But the reaction of the class wasn't much better so I assumed it was not totally my problem.  At one point the prof (who is wonderful) kind of threw us his hands in frustration and said something like "I'm failing here".  

The other thing about Aquinas.  Maimonides came l00 years before and said, from what I can glean from that month, basically the same thing.  I had just taken a class on Maimonides and read Sherwin Nuland's book about him.  When we began Aquinas it was deja vue all over again and I asked the prof if Aquinas had read Maimonides.  I'm not sure what his answer was, as I said I was distracted!  LOL!  But I'd be VERY surprised if he hadn't.  

 

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[SLROnline]

These are all great lists -- I've not done a good job keeping track of everything I read this past year. I write reviews for a local magazine and am on a committee that recommends books for a national retailers reading club so I probably read somewhere between ten and twenty books a month. There's little time for re-reading and something has to really grab me to get a close study...but the ones that take hold stay with me forever. Here's a partial list from 2008:

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian

The Prince by Machiavelli

The Song of Roland

Integral Psychology by Ken Wilber

The first five novels in Stephen King's Dark Tower Series

We the Living by Ayn Rand

Something Happened by Joseph Heller

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisa Peschi

2666 by Roberto Bolano (My favorite and one of my top ten all-time favorite reads)

The Iliad (Lombardo translation)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Laarson

Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

The Skeleton Key to Finnegan's Wake by Joseph Campbell

Portions of Sir Richard F. Burton's translations of The Arabian Nights

America, America by Ethan Canin

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

All Day Permanent Red -- a verse retelling of portions of the Iliad by Christopher Loque

War Music -- more of the same by Loque

Discipline by Paco Ahlgren

The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion all by William Faulkner

Requiem for a Nun and Sanctuary also by Faulkner

In the Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers

Many portions of the unabridged Golden Bough by Sir James Frazier

John Scalzi's Old Man's War trilogy

Methusaleh's Children and Revolt in2100 by Robert Heinlein

Ravelstein by Saul Bellow

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Anthem by Ayn Rand

All of these books had something personal to say to me in terms of story, character, or theme. There were many other excellent books read over the course of the last 12 months but the above list represents the titles that I believe affectec and changed me in some profound ways.

[Timbuktu2]

Peppermill, seeing you here has jogged my memory.  I neglected to list all of the books I read for the Oriental Institute courses.  Burkett's Babylon, Memphis and Persepolis and The Orientalizing Revolution , which I still haven't finished.  In Search of the Indo Europeans and The First Cities.  

I'm not taking any courses at the OI this quarter because I feel too scattered having to read so many books.  The luxury of reading at this time of life is to be able to read deeply and thoughtfully without pressure.  I feel sorry for my high schooler and look back at the kind of pressure that was on my other kids to just get through the books.  That may be part of why we can enjoy and get so much more out of books when we're older.  I can't imagine having to read these AND books for 4 other courses AND worry about grades.  But then their minds are fresher! 

[Timbuktu2]

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SLROnline wrote:

These are all great lists -- I've not done a good job keeping track of everything I read this past year. I write reviews for a local magazine and am on a committee that recommends books for a national retailers reading club so I probably read somewhere between ten and twenty books a month. There's little time for re-reading and something has to really grab me to get a close study...but the ones that take hold stay with me forever. Here's a partial list from 2008:

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian

The Prince by Machiavelli

The Song of Roland

Integral Psychology by Ken Wilber

The first five novels in Stephen King's Dark Tower Series

We the Living by Ayn Rand

Something Happened by Joseph Heller

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisa Peschi

2666 by Roberto Bolano (My favorite and one of my top ten all-time favorite reads)

The Iliad (Lombardo translation)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Laarson

Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

The Skeleton Key to Finnegan's Wake by Joseph Campbell

Portions of Sir Richard F. Burton's translations of The Arabian Nights

America, America by Ethan Canin

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

All Day Permanent Red -- a verse retelling of portions of the Iliad by Christopher Loque

War Music -- more of the same by Loque

Discipline by Paco Ahlgren

The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion all by William Faulkner

Requiem for a Nun and Sanctuary also by Faulkner

In the Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers

Many portions of the unabridged Golden Bough by Sir James Frazier

John Scalzi's Old Man's War trilogy

Methusaleh's Children and Revolt in2100 by Robert Heinlein

Ravelstein by Saul Bellow

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Anthem by Ayn Rand

All of these books had something personal to say to me in terms of story, character, or theme. There were many other excellent books read over the course of the last 12 months but the above list represents the titles that I believe affectec and changed me in some profound ways.

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Ok, you win.  LOL!  There's a group at U of Chicago that has been reading Finnigan's Wake all year.  

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[Laurel]

I agree. Aquinas is bound to be better than that crew.

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Everyman wrote:

I actually enjoyed the portions of Aquinas that were read in the St. John's program.   Such a wonderfully disciplined and logical writer! After having read in my HS years some other theologians, including Barth, Tillich, Bultmann, Kierkegaard, and Cox, all of whom I considered wishy-washy, it was a pleasure come across a theologian who had a logical and straightforward approach to theology, whether or not I agreed with him.  

Message Edited by Everyman on 01-02-2009 11:55 PM

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[Laurel]

That's quite a list, SLR! And it reminds me--I read Child 44 also. 

Here's an enjoyable article about a book not read in 2008. And the follow-up.